Loving Jesus — Don Wilkerson

This message is one of the Times Square pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge PO Box 260, Lindale, TX 75771 or calling 214 -963 -8626.

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Loving Jesus Through Praise and Devotion

116 and just leave it open. I'll read a couple verses in just a moment. But I want to begin tonight by saying that I have to admit that as a preacher, I'm in over my head in preaching on the chosen subject for this message.

I feel like a kindergarten or primary student being asked to teach chemistry. And yet there is a strong desire in me to still challenge you to do the very thing that I feel like I'm only an infant in understanding and experiencing myself.

And so I want you to listen to the following verses because they'll give you an indication of where I'm heading and what I want to speak about. Here in Psalms 116, verses 1 and 2, it says, I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my supplications, because he has inclined his ear to me.

It goes on, it says there, oh yes, therefore I shall call upon him as long as I live. And then Psalms 18 and 1, listen, it says, I love thee, O Lord, my strength. I love thee, O Lord, my strength. And listen to Psalms 31, 23.

O love the Lord, all you godly ones. The Lord preserves the faithful and fully recompenses the proud doers. Now, the title of my message tonight is simply this, Loving Jesus. Loving Jesus. Now, apparently the Holy Spirit is trying to talk to us because David Sunday night talked about loving Jesus.

And I had this message planned, the title of it, last week, even before Sunday came. So evidently the Holy Spirit's trying to say something. And when it comes to trying to speak of our love for him, words are inadequate.

We will never be able to show the Lord enough love for who he is and for what he has done in our lives. Love is like praise. How can we ever praise Jesus enough? And how can we ever demonstrate his love for us?

Love and praise are twins. We praise God because we love him. And we love him in and through our praises as what is our life. Psalms 511 says, but let all who take refuge in thee be glad. Let them ever sing for joy and mayest thou shelter them that those who love thy name may exalt in thee.

Now, our prayer and desire should be for an ever increasing love of our Savior and our Lord. This was Paul's prayer for the church. Philippians 1 .9 he says, and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and in all discernment.

That your love abound more and more. But listen, how easy it is and how quickly can our hearts get cold and indifferent and callous towards the Lord. How many of you who are married remember how quickly the honeymoon wore off?

He started taking you for granted. Maybe he got very cool or even cold or maybe it was she. And no longer was there that ready smile or that touch or that hug or the look that said, I love you. Or more importantly, the words that said, I love you.

Couples very often can begin to take each other for granted. Now, can you remember your spiritual honeymoon? Do you remember how you acted when the Lord took away your burdens and gave you his peace and his presence?

I think I told you the story about visiting a church one time and a man came into the service. He was drunk, but God got a hold of him, sobered him up, came to the altar, did a mighty work in his heart.

And he got so excited. He got drunk in the spirit. He got so happy. He's starting to carry on at the altar, having a good time. And everybody else that left the altar and they're all kind of watching him.

They're all kind of looking at him. And so the evangelist was there and got up and he noticed it. And he said, I see you all looking at this brother and I know what you want me to do. You want me to go down there and calm him down a little bit because you're getting embarrassed because he's getting a little carried away.

He said, but I'm not going to do it. He said, I'm going to let him enjoy himself because it won't be long. He'll be sitting out there with the rest of you and you'll have him so dead and so dry. I'm going to let him enjoy all he can right tonight.

But remember how you acted when the Lord took away your burdens, how he gave you peace. You were on a high and the hallelujahs and the praise gods and the I love you's rolled off your lips. It was a time like Solomon said, your love is better than wine.

It's better than anything that the world can offer you. He said, your oils have a pleasing fragrance. Your name is like purified oil. Therefore, the maidens love you. Draw me after you and let us run together.

The king brought me into his chambers and his banner over me was love. We will rejoice in you and be glad. We will extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you. Oh, that's a description of one who loves the Lord, especially a young, new convert.

But like newlyweds, when the honeymoon is over, often our love for the Lord grows cold and we allow a hardness to set in. I don't know if you've ever seen, as I have, a group of ships or boats that have been out in the river or out in the sea.

Been laden down with all kinds of goods that have come from bananas or grapes or whatever from South America or goods from around the world waiting to dock. Richly laden with goods, but they can't come in because of the ice that's there.

And when I think of that, I see it as a picture of our Lord who wants to come. He wants to come to us. He's richly laden down. But he cannot because of the coldness of our heart like ice, it blocks up the channel between us and the Lord.

Oh, that your heart might be melded tonight in the love of Jesus. Because there is a stream, there is a river of his grace and his mercy that Jesus wants to deliver to us off of his love boat, if you please.

But the ice has to melt first. I like what one preacher, and I quote him, he said, I had rather be blind and deaf and dumb and lose my taste and my smell than not to love Christ. To be unable to apprehend him is the worst of disabilities, the most serious of calamities.

And I can say amen to that. Now, I want to give you some reasons tonight why to love Jesus, why we should love Jesus. These reasons or motivations are found in the Psalms, but also in John's epistle where I want to start.

Christ Loved Us Before We Loved Him

Now, the first and the most important reason why we love Jesus is because he did it first. He did it first. Christ loved us before we ever thought about him or about loving him. First John 4, 19 says we love him because he first loved us.

Hallelujah. When I was a lad, I used to go with my preacher father to meetings. And he'd introduce me three ways. He'd first of all, introduce me to people and say, this is my son, Don or Donnie. And then he would also say that I was the next pre, that also he would say that I was a baby in the family, the youngest in the family.

And then he would always say, and this is the next preacher in the family. And I never doubted my dad. As far as I was concerned, dad said it, that settled it. I accepted it. Years later, my heavenly father let me know that my dad was right.

But more important than growing up knowing that I was going to be a preacher, was knowing and loving Jesus. Now I had to make my own decision about the Lord. But you see, growing up in a godly home, in a preacher's home, in a Bible believing home, in a Christ honoring home, that was a very special privilege.

It made it easier for me to choose the right and to shun the wrong. But you see, God's love for me, however, did not begin when I was born into a Christian home or into a pastor's home. But I, like you, was chosen before the foundations of the earth.

Hallelujah. Jeremiah 1 .5 said, it is said about Jeremiah, it applies to you and I. God said, before I formed you in the wound, I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you. Now isn't it nice to come into the world knowing that you're wanted?

Now I do praise God for putting me in a godly environment. But his love did not begin for me on September 13th, 1939, when I was born the fifth child of Ann and Kenneth Wilkerson at 305 18th Street in Barnesboro, Pennsylvania.

No, that's not where God's love began for me. I was wanted, and I was chosen, and I was loved, and I was consecrated before the foundations of the world. Hallelujah. Jesus loved me before Ann and Kenneth Wilkerson did.

Ephesians 1 .4 says, and he chose us in him before the foundations of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. The Lord wanted me more than my parents wanted me. You talk about family planning.

The first family, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost made plans for you and me. Even before they drew the plans for our home, this earth, even before that, they drew up plans for you and me. Hallelujah.

John 15 .16 says, you did not choose me, but I chose you. Now there are five wonderful proofs of Christ's love for us. And you that know the scripture, these are very obvious. You know them, they're very simple, but I want to go through them tonight.

And oh, they bless me. They bless me. One I've already alluded to, but let me expand on it. You see, Christ knew the kind of world that we would be born into. He knew the kind of wound that we would carry into this world.

And in his love, he had a plan. He had a plan that would go into action. And by his divine foresight and foreknowledge, the Lord knew that the temple of human nature had been invaded by a foreign virus.

And so even before the invaders, Satan landed on planet earth to inflict his poisonous venom, before the foundations of the earth and sin, the father, the son, and the Holy Ghost in concert had ready a plan to put into operation to counteract the virus unleashed on the human race.

Listen to Isaiah 59 and 10. It says, and he saw that there was no man. And he was astonished that there was no man to intercede. Then his own arm brought salvation to him and his righteousness upheld him.

Before the angel sang, before the sun and the moon and the stars were hung out, Christ was already hung out and prepared as a restorer of the blessings he knew we would never experience if he did not come.

Revelation 13, eight says that he is the lamb who has been slain from the foundation of the world. Listen to this prophetic word in Proverbs 8, 30 and 31, how rich it is, listen to it. Then I was beside him as a master workman and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the world, his earth and having my delight in the sons of men.

That's a prophetic picture of Christ. He was his father's master workman. And what was his delight besides doing the will of the father? It says he was delighting in the sons of men. Hallelujah. Can there be any doubt that God loves you and me?

That's why I love him, because he first loved me way, way back. Matthew 26, 34 says, then shall the king say to them on the right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Now you may be here tonight and you hurt, there's areas of your life that hurt every time. Maybe you hear me talk about a godly father or a godly mother, a godly home. You would get envious and say, I never had that.

But I want to tell you, God knew you. God had a plan for you before any earthly person had a plan for you. If my mother and father forsake me, God will lift me up and he'll lift you up because he knew you.

Hallelujah. Another proof of Christ's love was his willingness to become the representative of the father's love for us by being the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4, 9 and 10 says, by this, the love of God was manifested in us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now, propitiation simply means the atoning sacrifice for our sins. And you see, I believe what it means that Christ was slain from the foundation of the earth is that when God made a covenant to redeem man, that the son of God agreed at that moment to come and be the guarantor of that covenant.

When in the eternal and secret councils of heaven, this covenant was revealed at that very moment, the son said, it is finished, it is done. I will go, I will go. And I will fulfill the covenant on their behalf.

I will meet all the demands which he foresaw we would be unable to meet on our own part. He saw that and he saw it, said, okay, I'll go and I'll bring them back to the father, hallelujah. This is another reason why I love him.

As I realized how he first loved me as the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, he undertook to redeem and guard the whole flock that is entrusted into his care. And I'm one of those, hallelujah.

I'm a recipient of that, hallelujah. Number three, I love Christ. I know that Christ first, I love him because I know he first loved me. I know he first loved me because of what he left to come and love me.

What a home he left and came to come and identify himself with me and you. He was God of very God. The glories of the heavens was his, but he gave it all up and he renounced the royalties of heaven and all the honor and all the glory which rightly belonged to him as a son of God, as a son of the highest.

And he left his throne and he left his crown. He left it above to be born into a sin-cursed world. He left home and became homeless for you and me. He gave up royal robes to be robed in a human body.

No wonder Paul writes without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. You see, Jesus had to love me to leave his home. Only the angels perhaps understood the role, the position that he had, but he had to love you and me to leave it all to come where he would be rejected and spit upon and had to live in the corruption of this earth.

John 17, five and six. He said, I have glorified thee. He's praying to the father. He said, I have glorified thee in the earth. He said, I have finished the work which thou gave us to me to do. And then what does he ask of the father?

He asked to return home. He asked to return back to the glory that he once had. He said, and now, oh father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

You see, Christ so loved us, he gave up that glory. He divested himself of that position to manifest the father's name in you and in me, hallelujah. Now the fourth proof of Christ's love for me is that he took upon himself my sin and your sin.

Paul writes, he said, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. You see one so holy, so clean, so pure, bore our filthy sins. A songwriter calls it the great transaction. Actually, it's a transfer.

He took our sins. He bore our sins. He was sinless, but he became the sacrifice for our sins. And in exchange, we took his righteousness. Second Corinthians 5, 21 says, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Oh my, that's why I told you tonight, I feel like an infant. I cannot fathom the self-sacrifice of Christ. He paid my debt. He paid a debt he did not owe. I owe a debt I cannot pay, but he paid it because he bore it on the cross, hallelujah.

They had a missionary visited us a few weeks ago from Argentina. They've had, until recently, they've had hyperinflation in Argentina. 200 a month, 2 ,000%, it's shot way up. And I asked them, I said, what happened in the church?

What happened in the body of Christ? He told me, he said, there would be landlords who would be waiting for their tenants when they would come home from work and their rent would double and triple and they would be told if they didn't pay by the next day, they were out on the street.

He said, there were middle-class people who overnight, overnight were not middle-class anymore. They were poor. But he told about one man in the church was about to lose everything. Another wealthy man came up to him and he said, give me all your bills.

Give me all your debts. And the man with the wealth took the man about to lose everything and paid it all, paid it all as a demonstration of love within the body of Christ. But oh my friend, Jesus took on the full debt of my sins.

And when he did, he paid for them in full. He accepted the full punishment that went with that debt. As someone has written in a song, it says, who am I that a king should die for me? That's why I love him tonight, hallelujah.

That's why I love him. A fifth proof of Christ's love is that he is willing to share his glory with us. He is the glorious husband and his church is the bride, the lamb's wife. And there is nothing that he has which he is not also willing to share.

When Christ went back to the father, he was restored to the glory and the honor that was his before he left home. But now he has a new ministry in heaven, one which he did not have when he left home. And you know what it is?

It says that Christ sits at the right hand of the father ever making intercession for us. Why? Well, for one thing, he wants you and I to make it. He wants you and I to make it. But more than that, he wants to share his glory with you and I, hallelujah.

He said that where I am, there ye may be also. He has gone to the father's house to take possession of many mansions there, but not for himself alone, but for us. And his constant prayer is this, listen to it.

John 17, 24, he says, Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.

Think of it, I can hardly fathom it. We're going to be with him where he is and share in the glory he had in the beginning as he has now, hallelujah. Jesus has an ever flowing fountain of joy in his heart, but he declares that his joy may be in you if you belong to him.

And everything else will be ours as much as his. Listen to what it says, John 17, 26. And I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherein thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them, hallelujah.

No wonder John wrote, no wonder he wrote, we love him because he first loved us, hallelujah. In the Psalms are mentioned two other reasons for loving Jesus. I read one of them in Psalms 116, one. This is the first one in the Psalms.

There's quite a few of them. Now I'm just going to go over two of them with you. If you have your Bibles open there, it says, I love thee Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication. Here's another reason why I love Jesus.

Jesus Hears and Answers Prayer

He listens, he listens. He hears my prayers. The Lord has established a track record with me. I don't know about you, but he hears me when I call. He returns my phone calls if you please. You know, I suppose that phone answering machines are wonderful and helpful inventions.

Sometimes I don't like them, nor do I enjoy sometimes when I'm on hold for a long time. Well, I'll tell you one thing, Jesus never answers with a recorded message. Sometimes he says no. Sometimes he withholds the answers, but I want to tell you, he always does listen.

And he always does answer many and many of my supplications. And like the psalmist, I can say, I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication. And you know, you think about it. Some of our prayers aren't very eloquent.

Some of them are faint. Some of them are weak. Some of them are laden down with not the proper faith in them. And yet the Lord in his love answers us, hallelujah. You know, it's like, do you ever carry around a beat up old dirty old dollar bill?

You know, it's filthy and ragged and dirty. And one you're glad to get rid of as soon as you can. But have you ever noticed how it works just as well as a brand new one? So it is with our prayers. They may be feeble, but the Lord says, the poor man cried and the Lord delivered him out of his distresses, hallelujah.

I love the Lord. He listens, hallelujah. I remember one time when I was in the ministry of Teen Challenge. I went into the chapel one day to pray at a time when apparently there was some coldness in my heart or at least the heavens seemed to be as brass.

And I went to the altar and just knelt to pray and had a difficult time praying and getting through to the Lord. But as I was praying, someone came and knelt down right beside me. I didn't open my eyes, I didn't look, but I knew that it was a new resident, a new fellow had just come off the street, homeless fellow, drug addict fellow.

I knew it was probably him because I could smell the smell and knew that he was probably just off the streets. And as I faintly tried to pray, he also began to pray. And as he began to pray, he just very simply and with very simple words, but yet with brokenness in his heart, he said, oh Lord, he said, help me hear my cry.

And when I looked over at him and I saw tears coming down his eyes, in fact, they rolled down off his cheek and some of them came and they settled on the altar and I looked over and I saw that little puddle of tears.

And when I saw that, I was so moved and I thought about the two of us at the altar. If anybody had a right for God to hear him, you would think it would be me. I had all kinds of credentials. I could have laid down at that altar and said, God, you ought to hear my prayer.

Because of this and that, I could have taken out my minister's papers and laid them down the altar. I think he would have been impressed with that. I could have taken my diploma from Bible college out and laid it down.

I don't think he would have been impressed with that. But I want to tell you the thing that blessed me is here was this fella who had just come off the streets and because his heart was open, because he had a repentant heart, because he was a poor man who cried, he had just as much right and access to the throne of God as I did, hallelujah.

But I had many more reasons than him to love the Lord and to know that he could answer my prayers because I had had a long history with the Lord over the years of answered prayer. Let me illustrate it this way.

Suppose that there was a beggar that came to you, met you on the street as it happens, I'm sure to you, and meet at sometimes dozens of time in the day. And suppose you gave him some money or you took him for a good meal.

And then the next day he approaches you again and he's expecting the very same thing. And you might say to him, now listen, I gave you something once, but I didn't intend to make it a habit. And then like a typical New York beggar, he might come along and harass you or be indignant or angry at you.

And he may say something like this, sir, I intend to be here every day asking you. In fact, I'm gonna follow you home. I'll be here in the morning. When you get out, I'll be here begging. When you come home from work, I'll be there begging again.

In fact, he said, I may beg and bug you a dozen or more times in a day. Now by then, you're probably gonna try to take some kind of action. I don't know what you would do. But when you think about that, it's not too different in what you and I do with God.

And he's never complained, hallelujah. He's never complained. In fact, it's just the opposite. He says, why don't you ask me more? Hallelujah. Why don't you ask me more? Thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob.

Isaiah 43 and seven says, oh, I love the Lord because he hears me when I cry because he hath inclined his ear unto me. Therefore, I will call on him as long as I live. Have you ever had anybody say to you, especially my kids have done this at times, they've bugged me and bugged me and said, Dad, if you just give it to me now, I'll never bother you again.

Reminds me of a fella on board ship. They were sinking and they're about to sink and he got down on his knees. He said, God, he said, you know, I haven't bothered you for 10 years. And if you get me out of this mess, I won't bother you for another 10 years.

But I wanna tell you, the more God hears me, the more I'm inclined to ask again and again. And I love him all the more for it, hallelujah. Have you ever been in prayer as I have? And the phone rings, the phone rings.

And you know, sometimes the phone can be a terrible intruder and you know, and I don't wanna answer it. But I wanna tell you, I've been in prayer. I've gone to the phone and the answer's been on the other side, hallelujah.

God answers prayer, hallelujah. I love him, hallelujah. I love the Lord because he hears. He hears my voice and my supplication because he has inclined his ear to me. Therefore, I shall call upon him as long as I live and I will love him as long as I live because of it, hallelujah.

Christ Is Our Keeper and Deliverer

Glory to God. Turn to Psalms 18, Psalms 18. There's one more reason for loving Jesus and that's because he is our keeper. He's our keeper. Psalms 118. Before we read the first verse, what did I say? Psalms 18, yes.

I'm just seeing if you're listening, that's right. Just seeing if you're listening. Psalms 18, 1 -8. Right after 17, before 19. Boy, I love the congregation that listens. The preface in Psalms 18 gives us the reason that David wrote the psalm.

You'll notice, it says in my Bible, I don't know about yours, but it says for the choir director, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this psalm in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

And he said, I love thee, O Lord, my strength. Now, the deliverance that David is talking about is not that of one who was captured by the enemy, but one who was kept from him, who was protected and preserved.

And David penned these words right after his final deliverance from Saul when it was obvious that he never again would be taunted or teased or tested or troubled by Saul anymore. Now, note again in this introduction, it says that David spoke to the Lord the words of the psalm in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand.

He uses the word hand of the enemies. Now, the word hand used here is interesting. It really means Paul. It really means Paul. And it's talking about deliverance from an animalistic creature. And it was the same word used when David went against Goliath.

1 Samuel 17, 37. He said, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. Now you see, and then he goes on and he said, I love thee Lord because of your deliverance.

And you and I have the same reason tonight to love the Lord as David. The Lord has been and is our strength he delivers us by keeping us out of the paws of that roaring lion going about seeking to eat Christians and devour true Christians.

Now I know that there are times you may have fallen into the paws, into the hand, into the clutches of sin and Satan. In other words, he got his paws on you and captured you. But what about all the times the paws did not touch you?

Now, some of you have good reason to love Jesus tonight. Satan's paws reached out, but it didn't snatch you. The Lord gave you strength, the Lord kept you. And I know that we pastors sometimes, sometimes when we see people come to the altar or they go downstairs and they're struggling and they've fallen again and we're glad that they came to the altar, we'd rather them come here than go back that way.

And thank God for that. But I thank God for all of you that don't have to come to the altar because you say the Lord's hand, the Lord delivered me, hallelujah. Not after I fell, but he kept me by his power, hallelujah.

You know, I've seen young people, youth raised in the church like me who never, never went into the world. They come like last Tuesday night and they see and they hear these ex-drug addicts and alcoholics talk about deliverance out of the pits of sin.

And I've seen some of these Christian young people intimidated saying, I got no testimony. What I want to tell you, I got one greater than all of them put together because the Lord has kept me, hallelujah.

And he'll keep you and he's keeping some of our young people and thank God he is our keeper, hallelujah. The greater testimony is to be like David and say, the devil did not get me, Jesus kept me. Psalms 124 and five, the Lord is thy keeper.

The Lord will protect you from all evil. He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this day forth and forever, hallelujah. And then Psalms 31, 23, I, oh, love the Lord, all you, his godly ones.

The Lord preserves the faithful and fully recompenses the proud doer. Oh, how much we ought to thank the Lord tonight, how he's kept us. But you know, when David said here, I love the Lord, it's a unique word that he used, a very unique word.

It's not the normal word that's used for love. It means to yearn over. It actually carries the thought of deep, deep affection, a tenderness, a desire to reach out and touch. It has the connotation of deep feeling.

And if it can be said reverently, the word that David uses suggests that he loved the Lord so much that it says he wanted to hug the Lord. And we might paraphrase the verse, goes like this, just fervently with yearning, with a desire to hug you.

Do I love thee, oh Lord? Now, I don't know if you've ever felt a spiritual surge of emotion come over your soul to the point that you just wish that you could put your arms around the Lord. That's exactly how Mary felt on resurrection morning as she reached out and he said, don't touch me.

But she wanted to reach out and to hug him and express her love for him. Will you, do you have Psalms 18 open? Will you repeat it after me? This first verse, it says, I love thee, oh Lord, my strength.

Say it again. I love thee, oh Lord, my strength. The love that David is talking about is even much, much deeper than that. It's talking about love that comes deep within the bowels. In fact, it's related to a word that talks about how a woman feels about giving birth to a child in her womb.

And he is saying, oh, the love, the deep love from my innermost bowels, will I love thee, oh Lord? As I said, when I began, I believe the Lord is saying something to his church. He said it Sunday night and he's saying it again tonight.

And this is what he's saying. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. I wanna love the Lord that way, just as David did. And oh, sometimes I feel, I feel so, such an infant, as I said, when it comes to this.